Macy's Weekend at Mimi's

Macy spent the night with us Saturday night. For dinner, she wanted to make a menu, so I wrote down everything we were having. She then wrote, "Mimi's Restrot" on the left. She's really getting pretty good with sounding out words and spelling. I love the way she comes up with words like "restaurant" which is clearly a very hard word to spell! She circled what Papa (Popoy) had for dinner, then made him pay for it. She charged him a dollar per bowl of soup. He had to make some play money and pay me.

Macy pointing to a package under the tree that has her name on it. She said, "It's too big for one American Girl doll, so I think it's the "Bitty Twins!" Darn!

When we got home from church, she wanted to go feed the fish in the park. We had heard the song, "Mary, Did You Know" at church and she kept singing it over and over again. She didn't know all of the words, so she kind of made up some of them. Then I downloaded the song by Kenny Rodgers and Wynona Judd on my cell phone and we sat in the park, on this beautiful afternoon, and sang this song several times. For the link to this song go to http://www.andiesisle.com/didsheknow.html. Macy has a beautiful voice, and I will always remember her sitting in the park singing this song with me.

Here is a picture of Macy sneaking up on a butterfly. When we got to the park, there were several butterflies flying around near us. She was upset about this and said, "Oh, no, the butterflies are supposed to be in Mexico where it's warm. We have to save them, Mimi! We need to find them some flowers." (This could have easily been a "Dora the Explorer" episode!) There were no flowers in the park, since we had had a hard freeze last week, but I assured her they would find the pansies in our yard and survive. We saw one butterfly that landed on the sidewalk, and here she is trying to sneak up on it and catch it. Of course, it flew away about the time I took this picture. We spent the rest of the afternoon taking her babies for a walk in the stroller and collecting special rocks which she wants to write blessings on to give as gifts. By the time we got home, we had a stroller with three dolls in it and a load of rocks!

The Little Blue-Eyed Boy, AKA, The Stud

Doesn't he just steal your heart?

Marshall Metcalf, age 5 1/2

More Thanksgiving Fun with Family!

Larry's boys, Hayden and Sam on the left, and Nan's kiddos, Barbara and Wesley on the right!

Hayden is in second grade, Sam is four, Barbara has two years of college behind her and getting ready to go to UTMB in Galveston to pursue a career in nursing, and Wesley is a freshman at Reagan High School!

More of Funny Ainsley

Watching a little "Word World" on tv.

Picking up acorns in the park and...

...feeding them to the fish! The fish didn't like them, but Ainsley thought it was the right thing to do.

She just stepped out of the bath!

Thanksgiving morning:

"Ainsley, look at Mimi, smile!!!" This is what I got instead! It's just too funny not to post!

Again, "Ainsley, look at Mimi, smile!"

And here, she's pulling the skirt off!

She really looked so cute Thanksgiving morning, but she wanted to play with her skirt and she refused to keep her bow in her hair, which is lost somewhere in our house. So, you'll have to use your imagination, and pretend you know what she'd look like with the skirt around her waist, a bow in her hair, and a smile on her face! It was a great Thanksgiving. We are thankful for beautiful children, their spouses, and grandchildren. See more pictures below!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, THANKSGIVING!!

No matter how hard we tried, Ainsley insisted on putting her own spin on her Thanksgiving greeting. She recently had her birthday, so she just combined the two and would say, "Happy Birthday Thanksgiving!" It was a great Thanksgiving lunch with her cousins, Macy and Marshall, and the rest of the family.

The Kids' Table

My Broken Heart♥

This is what happened last Monday when Marshall, 5, broke my heart! I had picked him and Macy up from school and we went to their house. Marshall said, "Mimi, I have a girlfriend." That's when my heart began to crack a little. (See, I thought it was I who was his girlfriend, right after his mommy.) I calmly said, "Oh, really, who?" He said, "Sadie.....she calls me 'Marshmallow!'" I have often heard a little girl yell, "Bye, Marshmallow," when they get in my car after school. Then he went on to say, "I call her 'Princess!'" At this point, my heart was completely broken in two! To make matters worse, he said, "And I love her very, very, very much! I even love her more than God!" I said, "Oh, no, Marshall, you don't love anyone more than God. You love God above everyone else, then your mommy, daddy, Macy, and the rest of your family (me?)" And then Macy piped in...."and THEN your GIRLfriend!"

My Hero, Julie!

Julie and some her friends at her school decided last September that it would be "fun" to walk a half marathon in the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon last weekend. She walked a lot in her neighborhood, then on Sunday afternoons, all of them would meet at a nearby park and they would walk up to THREE HOURS at a stretch! It was often very hot during these walks, and if that wasn't bad enough, they frequently saw coral snakes on this trail! But did that stop them? No! They had the "faith of a mustard seed," (see my post about Marshall saying that a few months ago, below). Something really cool was that she wore some kind of a "chip" on her body and as she passed through certain milestones, I would get a text message which said, "Julie Metcalf just crossed the 5K line," etc. I had gone to Houston for Ainsley's second birthday, and was driving home when I got the message that said, "Julie Metcalf has crossed the finish line for the Half Marathon!" It was a great feeling! I knew from the beginning that she would succeed because when Julie sets her mind to something, she always succeeds! She is an awesome daughter! I am a mother filled with pride.